As we reflected on 2022 here at Digioh, we decided to ask our employees what developing trends they experienced, what work excited them the most, and what they recommend businesses begin in 2023 based on their work this year. 

It was amazing to see everyone come together from every side of the business – the design world, the technical side of things, the support team, the onboarding team, and more! Everyone has their own unique perspective on marketing and finding success based on the side of the business they see on a day-to-day basis. And we’re excited to share these reflections with you. 

Read on or choose your adventure below!

• Robert Steffes: Managed Services to Save Time
• Rishi Shah: Optimize Your Existing Traffic
• Jace Farran: Technology Remembers Things
• Chris Skjærvik: Mobile Design First, Not Second
• Elianna (Eli) Quiroz: Granular Personalized Data
• Quinn Zdybel: Increasing Customer Options with Innovation
• Melanie Angel: The Rise & Optimization of Quizzes
• Michaela Barriga: Personalization Prioritization & The Data Dilemma
• Patrick Thomas: Quick Tips for Bigger Results
• Sojib Belal: Go with the Sidebar
• Brian Beerman: Customers are Prioritizing Data
• Kashif Farooq: Always More Efficient
• Khizer Abbas: Visitors into Customers

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The Chief Officers

‍Save Time with Managed Services

Robert Steffes
‍CTO & Co-Founder of Digioh

We are all getting busier in our jobs, and our to-do lists aren't likely getting any shorter in 2023.  That's where "managed services" comes in handy.  Choose technology platforms that give you control when you need it, but also offer a supplementary service layer to help offload the work from you and your team.  Leveraging a la carte managed services also allows you to focus your spend on exactly what needs to get done, and reduces the risk of over-hiring in this uncertain economy.  Technology products and services are both important, and they will empower you the most when they work nicely together under a single platform.

‍Optimize Your Existing Traffic

Rishi Shah
‍CEO + Co-Founder

We’ve learned a lot this year and there are so many things I could talk about. I’ve worked in marketing technology for over 11 years, and there are always awesome innovations going on. Compared to years’ past, here are a few shifts I saw in marketing, customer requests, and content in 2022:

• More focus on capturing data 
• More focus on data going to their analytics systems for tracking 
• More focus on attribution (learning where their leads are coming from)
• Marketers are more analytical and need robust tools without the need for their engineering teams
• Marketing teams are becoming hybrid customer support + sales + onboarding teams 
• The rise of the “lifecycle marketer” (instead of Email marketing manager, they see the full funnel)

And if there’s one key tip I could share it’d be this: Stop throwing more dollars into ads and get more leads from your existing traffic. You already have the traffic, it’s time to learn how to use it! You will see a massive uptick in revenue and leads if you just optimize your existing traffic.

I’m excited about marketers owning their data in 2023. Marketers got addicted to all the Facebook data, now marketers will focus on capturing their own data in their own systems and using it to sell. It’s a more sustainable system that will lead to more revenue in the end.

‍Quick Tips for 2023:

• A/B test after you launch! Your first try is never the best. Learn and optimize – that is where you see the biggest gains.
• Don’t just launch something and let it go stale for months, continue to iterate on your quiz, pop-up, offers, etc.
• Your website is a reflection of how dynamic your business is: keep it fresh and always improving.

The Designers‍

Technology Remembers Things

Jace Farran
‍Senior Designer

As a response to stricter guidelines regarding how marketing data gets collected, we're seeing more and more companies approach learning about their audience from an ethical and very human approach and it's a refreshing shift! Companies are taking a really honest approach to forming relationships with customers by simply engaging with them directly—whether that's through customer feedback surveys, product recommendation quizzes that get to the bottom of what they need, or conversational forms that ask simple and straightforward questions.

There are so many exciting things on the horizon, but one thing as a consumer or site visitor I'm almost starting to take for granted is that technology remembers things for me. For example:

• Websites remember me and won't show me a "sign up and save" promotion if I'm already on their email list,
• Site reminders that show me what I was browsing last time
• Product recommendation quizzes remember my results when I come back to the site so I don't have to take it again
• Email preference centers show which lists I’m already subscribed to

And these are all things we improve for our customers’ sites as well. Through personalization and data convergence, we're going to continue to make things easier on site visitors by no longer asking them the same things over and over again and not leaving it up to them to remember where they left off and I'm all here for it.

My top piece of advice for 2023 is to make sure you're really using every tool in your arsenal to engage with your audience. If your customers are browsing away from a cart page, show them a lightbox with an offer or coupon code. If customers are brand new to your site, use advanced targeting to show a special message just for them. If you're looking to increase your average order value, show them a free shipping coupon for orders over that amount. If you find that your customers need to do a lot of research to understand what to buy, create a guided experience for them that teaches them more about your products and directs them to the right place. There are so many ways you can be really intentional about reaching the right site visitor at the right time, and it's important not to overlook those kinds of opportunities.

One of the most exciting parts of working at Digioh is getting to help customers build strategies. It's so fun to listen to their challenges and goals and then come up with enjoyable and innovative user experiences for their site visitors. And I can’t wait to do more of it in 2023!

Mobile Design First, Not Second

Chris Skjærvik
‍Designer

From a design perspective, in 2022 we’ve been focused on developing the best way to do quizzes as they’ve been scaling up this year even more than last year. We’ve been optimizing and standardizing our process which is great for productivity for future customers. We’re now able to do in 1-2 weeks what may have taken longer to compete in the past. And this is great for customers ready to get their quiz up fast.

Clients should be more aware of their mobile design. More and more people are using only their phones when going on the internet. A lot of people just don’t even have computers anymore. They go straight to their phone or tablet. Their entire experience with your site could possibly be only through your mobile site. So having a site that looks great on mobile is really important, and I think many have pushed mobile down on the priority list and focus too much on how their website looks on a desktop. If you know your clients are primarily using mobile devices, then focus your design on mobile first before working on how it looks on desktop, instead of vice versa.

Accessibility should also be more emphasized in 2023. This relates to the above, as businesses should make sure their site design is functional whether or not someone has a keyboard or a mouse, for example. But also from a design perspective, the design world is beginning to evolve away from minimalism after many years. And I think this is good because sometimes minimalist designs were hard to read especially if you had poor eyesight, for example. Overall, I’m much more excited about designs that work for people rather than designs that just look unique but aren’t operational. 

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The Onboarding Team

‍Granular Personalized Data

Elianna (Eli) Quiroz
‍Head of Onboarding

In 2022 I noticed a change in customers' focus on granular personalized data. In every Product Recommendation Quiz intro call the main goals that clients share are: 1. Conversions/Sales 2. Education, and 3. Email Acquisition. They are more interested in the raw user data aggregation than the actual email itself. From there, they want to use that to empower the products that they tout on their website and develop further.

One way we helped our customers see better quiz results in 2022 was identifying and solving the problem where their site visitors would begin but not finish their quiz. We found visitors often dropped off when asked for their email address. By adding a large 'skip email & see results' CTA button we were able to optimize quizzes and avoid a significant drop-off. If the user skipped and then added to cart, in the purchase process they would collect their email either way.

If businesses using a quiz on their site continue to see the email collection page as a drop-off, we can remove it entirely and use other widgets/initiatives to push for email acquisition. In other words, don’t use the quiz as an email collection campaign. Instead, we dedicate the quiz to collecting sales and user data, and use another method (lightboxes, banners, etc.) to gather emails.

For 2023 I'm excited about incorporating an eCommerce Package for our Quiz clients that sets them up for success with everything an eCommerce site needs, from a shopper’s first entry to exit intent and everything in between.

We've learned a lot from the quiz clients we've launched so far. They are the most successful when they can drive significant traffic to their quiz and are also re-enforcing with paid, social, and affiliate partners (if applicable).

Increasing Customer Options with Innovation

Quinn Zdybel
‍Technical Onboarding & Applications

One thing I noticed when working with our customers in 2022 is this: folks want to have all the options. When trying to choose between one option or another, they often want to know if there is a way to make both happen. To accommodate this, we’ve innovated our quiz product to give customers more options by allowing them to:

• Enter both months or years for an amount of time
• Use a slider or an input box to enter an answer that is based on a scale
• Display the exact number of products that are appropriate at the end of their quiz, not just a forced amount
• And so on

The opportunities are endless when our product evolves with our customers like this. We can help our customers build a design that works for their intended use case with question flows that keep users in the quiz and put content in front of them to aid in purchasing, signing up, or whatever other goal our customers have in mind. 

The advice I'd give to our Quiz clients in 2023 is to come to us with expert knowledge of your products and users. Combined with our knowledge of quiz building, this will ensure we build the best product for your users! Our customers see the most success when they collaborate with us in this way.

For 2023, I am the most excited about being able to offer a platform where users can accomplish complicated functionality simply using a straightforward UI. We're continuing to build a lot of very complex quizzes which is very exciting!

‍

The Marketing Team

‍The Rise & Optimization of Quizzes

Melanie Angel
‍Marketing Manager

Digioh's had an influx of new customers requesting custom quizzes over the past few years, but more specifically, this year has brought us customers with fresh use cases for quizzes. Now, eCommerce brands don't use quizzes solely to recommend products; they're deploying quizzes that accomplish a number of goals, including educating new customers, helping shoppers find the right size, and even simplifying the exchange process. Product quizzes have almost become table stakes in areas of eCommerce like personal care and supplements, and it's great to see our customers finding innovative ways to improve the customer experience with interactive content.

Bottom line, quizzes have demonstrably impacted our customers' revenue. Shoppers are several times more likely to purchase a product after taking a quiz, so to earn the most return from your quiz, it's important to make sure your customers see your quiz. Pop-up teasers, exit-intent lightboxes, and CTAs on your category pages can all help get the most eyes on your quizzes.

Our Digioh internal team has been hard at work in 2022 making it easier to launch quizzes, surveys, preference centers, and other onsite content. I'm excited to see our clients benefit from their hard work as they launch experiences that capture zero-party data, deliver better customer experiences, and drive revenue in 2023.

Personalization Prioritization & The Data Dilemma

Michaela Barriga
‍Content + Partner Marketing Manager

2022 continued the personalization prioritization of the last few years. It’s ironic that although consumer worries for personal privacy pushed third-party privacy requirements to become stricter, these same consumers expect their online experience to be seamlessly integrated with their personal preferences and desires. They may think it’s creepy, but they also like it when Instagram, Youtube, or Google shows them ads for something they’ve been thinking about purchasing. 

What does this mean for our customers? Well, personalization is powered by customer data. Without customer data, you can’t run a personalization station. In other words, customer data is the fuel behind any effective email marketing, cross-advertising, and live shopping experiences going into 2023. 

The good news is if you have a website, you have absolutely all of this data at your fingertips. Well, almost. You’re so close to it, you just need a way to activate it. You need a catalyst. It could be a lightbox, a Product Recommendation Quiz, a survey or an exit intent pop-up. Rather than waste time searching for customers off your site, focus your energy where you already have visitors and optimize there first. Operate on ground zero and collect that sweet customer data fuel for your marketing and customer communications.

I’m excited to educate our customers more and more as the marketing world evolves in 2023. The reality is: every business needs great marketing to be successful. Yet marketing is always evolving and trends are changing. So keeping up with marketing can be a frustrating task, because businesses want to focus on other areas of their business. That’s why I enjoy working in a business that comes alongside other businesses to help them go farther together.

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The Support Team

‍Quick Tips for Bigger Results

Patrick Thomas
‍Head of Support

One good approach to designing a lightbox to capture user data is with a multi-step form that uses several simple pages to ask users for their information, rather than having one long list of fields to fill out - avoid that eye glaze! 

For promoting quizzes, we've seen good results with using a small pop-up teaser to draw users' attention to the quiz without intruding on their browsing. 

For 2023, I'm looking forward to continuing to build our awesome support team so that we can continue to provide our clients with the best support possible!

Go with the Sidebar

Sojib Belal
‍General Support

Compared to last year, I noticed customers prioritizing the user experience, such as by asking for their email sparingly, rather than just collecting emails at all costs. 

Based on the customer successes I saw in 2022, for 2023 I highly recommend business sites design and implement sidebars (small pop-ups that slide out from the side of the screen). Sidebars are a game-changer. Users only sometimes want to put their email when they are served with a pop-up. But the sidebar always sticks at the bottom following a user through their experience.

Finally, I'd recommend running as many A/B tests as possible to understand what your users want. That way, you can capture more zero-party data. And platform training is the key to a sticky customer.  If they don't feel comfortable using the tool, they won't use it.

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The Technical Teams

‍Customers are Prioritizing Data

Brian Beermann
‍VP of Engineering

Marketing technology is constantly evolving with new capabilities landing in the hands of marketing professionals at a fast pace. Digioh is striving to help our customers take advantage of these opportunities and weave them together to drive success.

The biggest development I noticed in 2022 is how much data has become a top priority for our customers. They increasingly want to create and leverage data in multiple ways. And using our lightboxes, quizzes, and other Digioh products, in 2022 I saw our customers achieving success in making their data actionable. They are able to send communications, make offers, and tailor experiences, all in real-time from the data we are helping to enable. 

My #1 tip for 2023 is: elevate data competency to make the most of the data your customers are creating for you. 

Always More Efficient

Kashif Farooq
‍Full Stack Developer

In 2022, I learned a lot from Digioh customers and colleagues. Our team is always full of new ideas to improve our customer’s experience and the effectiveness of their lightbox or quiz, and it’s exciting to be a part of. Client satisfaction is definitely the first priority, and I look forward to making customer quizzes and other solutions more efficient so customers can see even better results. In 2023, we will be working with even more businesses and our focus will be efficiency and productivity.

Visitors into Customers

Khizer Abbas
‍JavaScript Developer

In 2022, most of the customers I worked with at Digioh had this primary goal: turn visitors into customers. To achieve this, they often requested to add multi-step forms, pop-ups, or a product quiz to their site. They used these to target visitors and collect customer data. I saw time and time again that these forms, pop-ups, and quizzes greatly increased our customer’s conversion rate of first-time visitors into customers.

I think our Digioh team has done an excellent job in implementing our dynamic email templates feature. With this feature, Digioh users can create dynamic product recommendation emails that show and promote a customer’s quiz results to them via a personalized dynamic email. Many of our customers love this feature because it is very effective. In addition, our continuously-updating JavaScript apps list is also very helpful for our clients, and they love using them to solve any question they come across.

In 2023 I think the market will move faster. It may be challenging for the average business to keep up. Luckily, we’re always up-to-date with the latest technologies coming to market so we can provide more efficient solutions to our clients. To keep getting positive traffic to their sites, you should stay agile, and don’t forget: you can always ask us for advice on the latest marketing strategies and how to keep improving lightboxes, quizzes, and other site tools.

Cheers to the New Year!

We hope you found these reflections insightful. As we end another year and wrap up our reflections, we here at Digioh are super excited about all of the opportunities ahead working with customers like you in 2023 and beyond.

From all of us here at Digioh: have a very Happy New Year!